Consider The Source In New Haven

Fusion trio Consider the Source performs at the Pacific Standard Tavern in New Haven on Feb. 26.

Consider the Source guitarist Gabriel Marin improvises on a double-neck guitar, switching between the fretless upper half, where he slides and bends pitches like a gliss-happy violinist, and the lower, fretted neck, for sweep-picking through blistering rock/jazz fusion arpeggios and chromatic runs. He sends his signal through a dizzying chain of effects, ranging from your standard distortion and wah-wah to whatever makes his guitar sound like, say, a glockenspiel. Sometimes he layers the glockenspiel sound with the wah-distortion sound. Sometimes he doesn't.

With the amount of virtuosity trapped inside the three members of Consider the Source — Marin, bassist John Ferrara and percussionist Jeff Mann — you can plan to hear a lot of notes. What's interesting, however, are the clouds of notes they choose: many CTS's compositions — "Moisturize the Situation," for example, from their 2009 album "Are You Watching Closely?" — draw from Middle Eastern scales and other pitch collections that sound exotic to Western ears. Paired with Mann's drumming, which sounds at times like thunderous, double-bass death-metal pounding, it's a powerful mix, threading Dick Dale with Mahavishnu Orchestra.

CTS plays the Pacific Standard Tavern, one of New Haven's newest live venues, on Thursday at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $10-$12.